Storms are the triumph of His art
Away, Despair! My gracious Lord doth hear:
Though winds and waves assault my keel,
He doth preserve it: He doth steer,
Ev'n when the boat seems most to reel:
Storms are the triumph of His art:
Well may He close His eyes, but not His heart.
-George Herbert, ~1630
We should see that the case of a praying man cannot be desperate -- that if a man be out of the pit of hell, he is on the ground of mercy. We should recollect that God sees a way of escape when we see none, that nothing is too hard for Him -- that He warrants our dependence, and invites us to call on Him in the day of trouble, and gives a promise of deliverance.
-Richard Cecil, summarizing his biography of John Newton